problem with missile units

[vasilisguru]

Hello. I am a new member.
After spending allot of time with total war and many mods, I decided to post something that bothers me.
Some missile units, crossbowmen, musketeers… take much time to load and reload.
So they actually do not have the time to fire when they are in range and fast units engage without being affected. Especially units with short range weapons like handguners, don’t have the opportunity to fire at all.
I sagest that foot missile units (not bowmen) and mounted ones should go into battle with there weapons loaded us real solders did.
Practically it must be: (fire – reload) not (load – fire – reload…)
Does anyone agree to this?

[Abokasee]

Ahh thats because your using them wrong my friend

Crossbows (MTW2) Have a very long range and can take out many enemy infantry in short amount of time, against unarmoured cavalry they can butcher them at range when there going into there missles!

Hand gunners... well primitive technogly, thus dont expect much from them, the only use I see for them is ranged heavy infantry with there nice armour, of coures, if your venice they completely obsolute, aqubeisers are highly effective providing you use them right (I find spreading them thin does more damage since more people can fire) and musket are the same just even more effective (Cossacks, Musketeers, Jannisary the like will massacre enemies if used correctly, especially Cossack and Jannisarries)

Fast cavalry are perfect counter XBow and Powder units, its only fair to have a counter to something, which is why you should always bring some people with long sticks with a metal bit at the end, even if its pike militia (Taking away there sword weapon is a good idea, most mods do this)

As for units already being loaded up and ready to go, this wouldnt of been pratical for a long march as "black powder" was generally hard to maintain and could have the bad habit of ripping off your limbs if the worst case scenerio happened, and it was useless if it was wet so it needed to be kept in a dry enviroment, witch are usually quite hot, and gun powder REALLY likes those places and will explode with joy, as for normal bows, well it would be quite difficult to keep your arrow all the way back for that long march as well as that quick jolt fowards to fire off your load before your cut down by a man with a lance that broke in your face before he whips out his sword cuts your mates head off, and im quite sure that running with a crossbow would make bolt fall out (I am not sure of this)

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, vasilisguru!

In addition to Abokasee's advice, you may also wish to ask around in the Citadel. Chances are you'll get as much (if not more) information/advice as you'll need.

[vasilisguru]

Thank you guys for replying and enlighten me but see this:
Imagine yourself being an xbowman in a battlefield watching enemy approaching,
Would you charge your bow at the time they were at range and give them the opportunity to advance more? No! You have it charged and loaded already and you wait in an aiming position so when they are in range, you fire at once and then load again. Am I wrong?

[Puzz3D]

Would you charge your bow at the time they were at range and give them the opportunity to advance more? No! You have it charged and loaded already and you wait in an aiming position so when they are in range, you fire at once and then load again. Am I wrong?

You're not wrong. This is yet another of many examples why the new battle engine is inferior to the old battle engine. In the old battle engine, your ranged units are loaded and ready to shoot at incoming enemy units. As soon as your ranged unit stops moving it can shoot, and you can control how long it holds its fire before it shoots. On top of that, the reload rate of archers in M2TW is just plain wrong for no apparent reason other than the graphic artist made the reload animation too slow.

[PBI]

This always particularly annoys me with cannons; the soldiers take so long to load the thing that by the time it's ready to fire, the target unit has moved too far sideways. Rather than just turning the loaded cannon and firing, they have to turn and then start the whole loading animation again from scratch.

I seriously hope this gets fixed in Empire.